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From the Archive | Muhammad Ali Center recasts identity as it opens new $250,000 Brown-Forman Pavilion

As it tries to sharpen its identity as one of Louisville's premiere attractions, the Muhammad Ali Center has opened a major new space called the Brown-Forman Pavilion that overlooks both Sixth Street and the

Article first published on August 14, 2011.

As it tries to sharpen its identity as one of Louisville's premiere attractions, the Muhammad Ali Center has opened a major new space called the Brown-Forman Pavilion that overlooks both Sixth Street and the Ohio River and is available to rent for private functions.

A gift from the Louisville-based distiller paid for the $250,000 pavilion project, said center spokeswoman Jeanie Kahnke. The money was part of a larger donation Brown-Forman made recently to the center's Legacy Campaign, an effort to raise $10 million to finish some long-planned center needs, including creation of an endowment fund, adding a library, and upgrading mechanical systems and the Ali museum exhibits.

The center, which is in the midst of a search for a new leader, is also working on what amounts to a new strategic plan, said Ralph De Chabert, one of two interim co-directors named after the the departure of Greg Roberts, who resigned as the Ali Center's president and chief executive officer in February.

"Everyone has a notion of what we ought to be," De Chabert said. "We are trying to narrow our focus and scope."

The new pavilion extends out over both Sixth and River Road, wrapping around the northeast corner of the center at the elevated lobby level. The pavilion has about 2,200 square feet of space and can accommodate more than 200 people standing, or about 100 seated.

It was designed by Joseph & Joseph Architects and features extensive landscaping that includes trees, flowers and other plantings. Kahnke said that in recent weeks the pavilion has been rented for weddings, corporate functions and receptions. It costs $850 to rent Sunday through Thursday and $1,000 on Friday or Saturday. Users can have access to other center facilities, including the LeRoy Neiman Gallery and a 151-seat auditorium.

The center, which opened in late 2005 and is dedicated to promoting the career and good works of the three-time heavyweight boxing champion who was born in Louisville, launched the Legacy Campaign fund-raising in 2009. It recently reached the halfway point toward the $10 million goal, Kahnke said, with about $850,000 already spent on signage, building upgrades and other improvements, including the pavilion.

Meanwhile, as the Ali Center board members try to define the center's goals, they have not yet moved to permanently replace Roberts. In his place, the Ali Center board appointed De Chabert to oversee internal matters and Barry Alberts to oversee external affairs.

Alberts is a former executive director of the city's Downtown Develoment Corp. and served as the Ali Center's interim president temporarily in 2008.

De Chabert, Brown-Forman's chief diversity officer, has taken a leave of absence as a member of the Ali Center board of directors to take on the interim staff assignment. But he remains on the Ali board's search committee that is seeking a new chief executive officer to replace Roberts.

Kahnke declined to say whether Alberts and De Chabert are being compensated for their interim service.

Although Roberts left six months ago, De Chabert said the hunt for a new CEO "is just beginning." He expressed confidence that the center will have a new staff chief by year's end.

He said the center's board has been "defining its role" and also the specific tasks it wants the new staff CEO to pursue.

The center has hired a Chicago strategic-planning consultant, ROI Ventures LLC, for Return on Inspiration, to help the center determine its direction.

De Chabert said the center is working on developing an "only-ness" statement, or focusing on things that only the center believes that it can do. "If we define (the mission) too broadly, we are back to the same old problem, of being everything to everyone," he said.

He indicated that previously the center mission may have been so wide-ranging that the staff's tasks became unwieldy as it tried to develop too many programs to accomplish too many ends — instead of picking a handful of worthwhile endeavors.

No matter what results, De Chabert said that the center's commitment to promoting justice and peace-making as well as Ali's six core values — respect, confidence, dedication, conviction, giving and spirituality — is "unshakable" and won't change.

And the Ali museum component, including exhibits related to the core values and also boxing memorabilia, will remain, though perhaps enhanced.

The strategic-planning effort is also striving to find ways to improve upon the "visitor experience" to the center, De Chabert said. "We want visitors to walk away with a better understanding of their role in transforming society and also in transforming themselves."

After Roberts left, the center laid off two other top officials last spring, Anthony Henderson, vice president of operations, and George Barber, vice president of finance.

Two new recent hires were Marcel Parent as senior director of visitor experience and Laura Sullivan as senior director of finance. The center also is in the process of hiring a new manager of education and a new building manager, officials said.

Center annual attendance has consistently hovered between 85,000 and 100,000 since opening and was around 85,000 in the fiscal year that ended June 30, Kahnke said. Officials noted that many museums have seen visitation drop or level off amid the recession.

De Chabert said that Ali, who will be 70 in January, continues to cope with physical disabilities related primarily to Parkinson's disease. "He is doing as well as he can" and "he is fighting hard," De Chabert said, adding that Ali appears to find it increasingly difficult to speak.

Ali has recently cut back on his travel and stays nearly full time in Phoenix, De Chabert said.

Ali has not been to Louisville this year, but Kahnke said the center hopes he will be able to visit his native city and the center later this year. The Alis maintain a home in suburban Jefferson County. Lonnie Ali is on the Ali Center's board and is extremely active in the center's business, Kahnke said.